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The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by
the Roman Catholic Church,
which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent that the arts should
communicate religious themes in direct and emotional involvement.
The aristocracy also saw the dramatic style
of Baroque architecture and art as a means of impressing visitors
and expressing triumphant power and control. Baroque palaces are
built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases and reception
rooms of sequentially increasing opulence.

Evolution of the Baroque

Beginning around the year 1600, the demands for new art resulted in
what is now known as the Baroque. The canon promulgated at the
Council of Trent (1545–63) by which
the Roman Catholic Church
addressed the representational arts by demanding that paintings and
sculptures in church contexts should speak to the illiterate rather
than to the well-informed, is customarily offered as an inspiration
of the Baroque, which appeared, however, a generation later. This
turn toward a populist conception of the function of ecclesiastical
art is seen by many art historians as
driving the innovations of Caravaggio and the Carracci brothers, all of whom were working in Rome
at that time.

The appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty,
intellectual qualities of 16th century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the
senses. It employed an iconography that
was direct, simple, obvious, and dramatic. Baroque art drew on
certain broad and heroic tendencies in Annibale Carracci and his circle, and
found inspiration in other artists such as Caravaggio, and Federico Barocci nowadays sometimes termed
'proto-Baroque'.

Some general parallels in music make the expression "Baroque music"
useful. Contrasting phrase lengths, harmony and counterpoint ousted polyphony, and orchestral color made a stronger
appearance. (See Baroque music.)
Similar fascination with simple, strong, dramatic expression in
poetry, where clear, broad syncopated rhythms replaced the
enknotted elaborated metaphysical similes employed by Mannerists such as John
Donne and imagery that was strongly influenced by visual
developments in painting, can be sensed in John Milton's Paradise Lost, a Baroque epic.

Though Baroque was superseded in many centers by the Rococo style, beginning in France in the late 1720s, especially for
interiors, paintings and the decorative arts, Baroque architecture
remained a viable style until the advent of Neoclassicism in the later 18th century.
A
prominent example, the Neapolitan palace of Caserta, a Baroque palace (though in a chaste exterior)
that was not even begun until 1752. Critics have given up
talking about a "Baroque period".

In paintings, Baroque gestures are broader than Mannerist gestures:
less ambiguous, less arcane and mysterious, more like the stage
gestures of opera, a major Baroque artform.
Baroque poses depend on contrapposto ("counterpoise"), the tension
within the figures that moves the planes of shoulders and hips in
counterdirections. It made the sculptures almost seem like they
were about to move.

The drier, chastened, less dramatic and coloristic, later stages of
18th century Baroque architectural style are often seen as a
separate Late Baroque manifestation. (See Claude Perrault.) Academic characteristics
in the neo-Palladian architectural style,
epitomized by William Kent, are a
parallel development in Britain and the British colonies: within
interiors, Kent's furniture designs are vividly influenced by the
Baroque furniture of Rome and Genoa, hierarchical tectonic
sculptural elements, meant never to be moved from their positions,
completed the wall decoratio. Baroque is a style of unity imposed
upon rich, heavy detail.

Art historians, often Protestant ones,
have traditionally emphasized that the Baroque style evolved during
a time in which the Roman Catholic
Church had to react against the many revolutionary cultural
movements that produced a new science and new forms of religion—the Reformation. It has been said that
the monumental Baroque is a style that could give the papacy, like secular absolute monarchies, a formal, imposing
way of expression that could restore its prestige, at the point of
becoming somehow symbolic of the Catholic Reformation. Whether this is the
case or not, it was successfully developed in Rome, where
Baroque architecture widely renewed the central areas with perhaps
the most important urbanistic revision during this period of
time.

Baroque painting

A defining
statement of what Baroque signifies in painting is
provided by the series of paintings executed by Peter Paul Rubens for Marie de Medici at the Luxembourg
Palace in Paris (now at the Louvre), in which a
Catholic painter satisfied a Catholic patron: Baroque-era
conceptions of monarchy, iconography, handling of paint, and
compositions as well as the depiction of space and
movement.

There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from
Caravaggio to Cortona; both approaching emotive dynamism
with different styles. Another frequently cited work of Baroque art
is Bernini's Saint Theresa in Ecstasy for
the Cornaro chapel in Saint Maria della Vittoria, which brings
together architecture, sculpture, and theatre into one grand
conceit.

The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative
Rococo, which, through contrast, further
defines Baroque.

The intensity and immediacy of baroque art and its individualism
and detail—observed in such things as the convincing rendering of
cloth and skin textures—make it one of the most compelling periods
of Western art.

Baroque sculpture

In Baroque sculpture, groups of figures assumed new importance, and
there was a dynamic movement and energy of human forms— they
spiraled around an empty central vortex, or reached outwards into
the surrounding space. For the first time, Baroque sculpture often
had multiple ideal viewing angles. The characteristic Baroque
sculpture added extra-sculptural elements, for example, concealed
lighting, or water fountains. Aleijadinho in Brazil was also one of the great
names of baroque sculpture, and his master work is the set of
statues of the Santuário de Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in
Congonhas. The soapstone sculptures of old testament
prophets around the terrace are considered amongst his finest
work.

The architecture, sculpture and fountains of Bernini (1598–1680) give highly charged
characteristics of Baroque style. Bernini was undoubtedly the most
important sculptor of the Baroque period. He approached Michelangelo in his omnicompetence:
Bernini sculpted, worked as an architect, painted, wrote plays, and
staged spectacles. In the late 20th century Bernini was most valued
for his sculpture, both for his virtuosity in carving marble and
his ability to create figures that combine the physical and the
spiritual. He was also a fine sculptor of bust portraits in high
demand among the powerful.

Bernini's Cornaro chapel: the complete work of art

A good
example of Bernini's work that helps us understand the Baroque is
his St. Theresa in
Ecstasy (1645–52), created for the Cornaro Chapel of the
church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.
Bernini designed the entire chapel, a subsidiary space along the
side of the church, for the Cornaro family.

Saint Theresa, the focal point of the chapel, is a soft white
marble statue surrounded by a polychromatic marble architectural
framing. This structure works to conceal a window which lights the
statue from above. In shallow relief, sculpted figure-groups of the
Cornaro family inhabit in opera boxes along the two side walls of
the chapel. The setting places the viewer as a spectator in front
of the statue with the Cornaro family leaning out of their box
seats and craning forward to see the mystical ecstasy of the saint.
St. Theresa is highly idealized
and in an imaginary setting. St. Theresa of Avila, a popular saint of the
Catholic Reformation, wrote of
her mystical experiences aimed at the nuns of her Carmelite Order; these writings had become
popular reading among lay people interested in pursuing
spirituality. In her writings, she described the love of God as
piercing her heart like a burning arrow. Bernini literalizes this
image by placing St. Theresa on a cloud while a Cupid figure holds
a golden arrow (the arrow is made of metal) and smiles down at her.
The angelic figure is not preparing to plunge the arrow into her
heart— rather, he has withdrawn it. St. Theresa's face reflects not
the anticipation of ecstasy, but her current fulfillment.

This is widely considered the genius of Baroque although this mix
of religious and erotic imagery was extremely offensive in the
context of neoclassical restraint. However, Bernini was a devout
Catholic and was not attempting to satirize the experience of a
chaste nun. Rather, he aimed to portray
religious experience as an intensely physical one. Theresa
described her bodily reaction to spiritual enlightenment in a
language of ecstasy used by many mystics, and Bernini's depiction
is earnest.

The Cornaro family promotes itself discreetly in this chapel; they
are represented visually, but are placed on the sides of the
chapel, witnessing the event from balconies. As in an opera house, the Cornaro have a privileged
position in respect to the viewer, in their private reserve, closer
to the saint; the viewer, however, has a better view from the
front. They attach their name to the chapel, but St. Theresa is the
focus. It is a private chapel in the sense that no one could say
mass on the altar beneath the statue (in 17th century and probably
through the 19th) without permission from the family, but the only
thing that divides the viewer from the image is the altar rail. The
spectacle functions both as a demonstration of mysticism and as a
piece of family pride.

Baroque architecture

In Baroque architecture, new emphasis was placed on bold massing,
colonnades, domes,
light-and-shade (chiaroscuro),
'painterly' color effects, and the bold play of volume and void. In
interiors, Baroque movement around and through a void informed
monumental staircases that had no parallel in previous
architecture. The other Baroque innovation in worldly interiors was
the state apartment, a processional sequence of increasingly rich
interiors that culminated in a presence chamber or throne room or a
state bedroom. The sequence of monumental stairs followed by a
state apartment was copied in smaller scale everywhere in
aristocratic dwellings of any pretensions.

Another example of baroque architecture is the Cathedral of Morelia
Michoacan in Mexico. Built in the 17th century by Vincenzo
Barrochio it is one of the many baroque cathedrals in Mexico.

Baroque theatre

In theatre, the elaborate conceits, multiplicity of plot turns, and
variety of situations characteristic of Mannerism (Shakespeare's tragedies, for instance)
were superseded by opera, which drew together
all the arts into a unified whole.

Theatre evolved in the Baroque era and became a multimedia experience, starting with the actual
architectural space. In fact, much of the technology used in
current Broadway or commercial plays was invented and developed
during this era. The stage could change from a romantic garden to
the interior of a palace in a matter of seconds. The entire space
became a framed selected area that only allows the users to see a
specific action, hiding all the machinery and technology - mostly
ropes and pulleys.

This technology affected the content of the narrated or performed
pieces, practicing at its best the Deus
ex Machina solution. Gods were finally able to come down -
literally - from the heavens and rescue the hero in the most
extreme and dangerous, even absurd situations.

The term Theatrum Mundi - the world is a stage - was also created.
The social and political realm in the real world is manipulated in
exactly the same way the actor and the machines are
presenting/limiting what is being presented on stage, hiding
selectively all the machinery that makes the actions happen.

Baroque literature and philosophy

Baroque actually expressed new values, which often are summarized
in the use of metaphor and allegory, widely found in Baroque literature, and
in the research for the "maraviglia" (wonder, astonishment — as in
Marinism), the use of artifices. The
psychological pain of Man -- a theme disbanded after the
Copernican and the Lutheran revolutions in search of solid
anchors, a proof of an "ultimate human power" -- was to be found in
both the art and architecture of the Baroque period. Virtuosity was
researched by artists (and the virtuoso
became a common figure in any art) together with realism and care for details (some talk of a
typical "intricacy").

The privilege given to external forms had to compensate and balance
the lack of content that has been observed in many Baroque works:
Marino's "Maraviglia", for
example, is practically made of the pure, mere form. Fantasy and
imagination should be evoked in the spectator, in the reader, in
the listener. All was focused around the individual Man, as a
straight relationship between the artist, or directly the art and
its user, its client. Art is then less distant from user, more
directly approaching him, solving the cultural gap that used to
keep art and user reciprocally far, by Maraviglia. But the
increased attention to the individual, also created in these
schemes some important genres like the Romanzo (novel) and allowed popular or local forms of art,
especially dialectal literature, to be put into evidence.
In
Italy this movement toward the single individual (that
some define a "cultural descent", while others indicate it as a
possible cause for the classical opposition to Baroque) caused
Latin to be definitely replaced by
Italian.

In English literature, the
metaphysical poets represent a
closely related movement; their poetry likewise sought unusual
metaphors, which they then examined in often extensive detail.
Their verse also manifests a taste for paradox, and deliberately
inventive and unusual turns of phrase.

Baroque music

The term Baroque is also used to designate the style of
music composed during a period that overlaps with that of Baroque
art, but usually encompasses a slightly later period. Antonio Vivaldi, J.S.Bach and G.F.Handel are often considered its
culminating figures.

It is a still-debated question as to what extent Baroque music
shares aesthetic principles with the visual and literary arts of
the Baroque period. A fairly clear, shared element is a love of
ornamentation, and it is perhaps significant that the role of
ornament was greatly diminished in both music and architecture as
the Baroque gave way to the Classical period.

It should be noted that the application of the term "Baroque" to
music is a relatively recent development. The first use of the word
"Baroque" in music was only in 1919, by Curt
Sachs, and it was not until 1940 that it was first used in
English (in an article published by Manfred Bukofzer). Even as late as 1960
there was still considerable dispute in academic circles over
whether music as diverse as that by Jacopo
Peri, François Couperin
and J.S.Bach
could be meaningfully bundled together under a single stylistic
term.

Many musical forms were born in that era, like the concerto and sinfonia.
Forms such as the sonata, cantata and oratorio
flourished. Also, opera was born out of the
experimentation of the Florentine
Camerata, the creators of monody, who
attempted to recreate the theatrical arts of the Ancient Greeks.
Indeed, it is exactly that development which is often used to
denote the beginning of the musical Baroque, around 1600. An
important technique used in baroque music was the use of ground bass, a repeated bass line. Dido's
Lament by Henry Purcell is a
famous example of this technique.

Etymology

According to the Oxford
English Dictionary, the word baroque is derived from
the Portuguese word "barroco", Spanish "barroco", or French
"baroque", all of which refer to a "rough or imperfect pearl",
though whether it entered those languages via Latin, Arabic, or
some other source is uncertain. In informal usage, the word
baroque can simply mean that something is "elaborate",
with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The word "Baroque", like most periodic
or stylistic designations, was invented by later critics rather than practitioners of the arts in the
17th and early 18th centuries. It is a French transliteration of the Portuguese phrase "pérola barroca",
which means "irregular pearl", and natural
pearls that deviate from the usual, regular forms so they do not
have an axis of rotation are known
as "baroque pearls". Others derive it from the mnemonic term
"Baroco" denoting, in logical Scholastica, a supposedly
laboured form of syllogism.

The term "Baroque" was initially used with a derogatory meaning, to
underline the excesses of its emphasis. In particular, the term was
used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of
details, which sharply contrasted the clear and sober rationality
of the Renaissance. It was first rehabilitated by the Swiss-bornart historian, Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945) in his
Renaissance und Barock (1888); Wölfflin identified the
Baroque as "movement imported into mass," an art antithetic to
Renaissance art. He did not make
the distinctions between Mannerism and
Baroque that modern writers do, and he ignored the later phase, the
academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Writers in
French and English did not begin to treat Baroque as a respectable
study until Wölfflin's influence had made German scholarship
pre-eminent.

Modern usage

In modern usage, the term "Baroque" may still be
used, usually pejoratively, describing works of art, craft, or
design that are thought to have excessive ornamentation or
complexity of line, or, as a synonym for
"Byzantine", to describe
literature, computer software, contracts, or laws that are thought
to be excessively complex, indirect, or obscure in language, to the
extent of concealing or confusing their meaning.